Cold War Eastern Europe
Over 1.4 million pages from the British Foreign office, electronically searchable for the first time
During the Cold War, the British Foreign Office was interested in every aspect of political, economic, cultural, social, and dissident life behind the Iron Curtain. So, they had embassies and consulates across the Eastern Bloc reporting on state leadership, party politics, protest movements, agricultural output, international trade agreements, scientific progress, minority populations, religion, sporting events, state-run media, and popular culture. And now, these previously secret files are available for teaching and scholarship—searchable with new tools.
The collection, sourced exclusively from The National Archives (UK), lets us look into the workings of every country in the Eastern Bloc during the post-Stalin era, through thousands of English-language insights written in the first person by officials of the time.
"Cold War Eastern Europe is a truly indispensable resource for students and academics alike studying the history of Eastern Europe, Communism and the Cold War."
Csaba Bekes, Founding Director, Cold War History Research Center, Budapest, Hungary.
For research
For the first time, the full text of these files can be searched with keyword and proximity functions. Hundreds of thousands of pages of critical materials can now be mined with sophisticated tools.
For learning
Students will be excited to engage with previously secret primary sources. More than 80% of the material is written in English and is itself often written as a briefing, so making it accessible to a wide range of students. Additional learning tools include:
Introductory essays.
Specially commissioned essays and lesson plans written by members of the Editorial Board.
A timeline of key events between 1953 and 1982 documented in the files.
A glossary of key people, including state leaders, leading statesmen, and East European and UK diplomatic personnel, with hyperlinks to relevant search results.
A Communist States Fact File that includes glossaries of communist state names, governing parties, key organizations, and state leadership positions.
A Foreign Office Fact File that includes a glossary of relevant Foreign Office political departments and an overview of the UK’s embassy and consulate network in Eastern Europe.
Document types
Administrative Records
Correspondence
Financial Records
Legal and Treaty Material
Meeting Minutes
Memoranda
Miscellany
Parliamentary and Official Government Material
Press and Media
Print Publications
Reports
Speeches and Public Statements
Visual Media
Themes
Border Security and Migration
Dissent, Resistance, and Human Rights
Domestic Politics
Economics and Trade
Embassy and Consulate Administration
Industry and Agriculture
International Relations
Key Events
Media and Culture
Military
Populations and Social Policy
Religion
Science and Technology
Second World War Aftermath
Secret Intelligence and Espionage
Sport, Leisure, and Tourism
Youth and Education
Coverage
1953-1960: The Khrushchev Thaw and the process of de-Stalinization; the gradual reform and easing of political terror in the Soviet Union; the reassertion of Soviet power across the Eastern Bloc with the formation of the Warsaw Pact; and the military suppression of uprisings in East Germany, Poland, and Hungary.
1961-1966: Events that altered the trajectory of the Cold War; construction of the Berlin Wall; the Cuban Missile crisis; the rise of Leonid Brezhnev and the removal of Nikita Khrushchev as the head of the Soviet Union; and the enactment of drastic reforms within the Soviet Union that culminated in the Sino-Soviet split.
1967-1975: In-depth reporting of the movements for social change in Czechoslovakia (1968) and Poland (1968 and 1970); the subsequent reinstatement of the Soviet model through suppression and military intervention; and the period of détente, which saw the steady easing of tensions between East and West that culminated in Richard Nixon's visit to Moscow in 1975.
1976-1982: The latter Brezhnev years known as the Era of Stagnation, characterized by steady economic decline across Eastern Europe; the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979; the deepening rift between East and West as Soviet influence expanded in the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia; the non-ratification of SALT II; and the boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics, which illustrated the deteriorating relationship between the major powers.
Sample Documents
FO 371/106516: British Ambassador in Moscow's report on the death of Stalin in 1953; Stalin's funeral and the infighting to succeed him, 1953. (See opposite)
FO 371/122767: Confidential cypher communication from the UK’s Ambassador to the Soviet Union reporting on Khrushchev's Secret Speech, 1956.
FO 371/151626: Account of the Hungarian Revolution by a Communist Party member who opposed the Revolution, 1960.
FO 371/160572: Secret telegrams to the Foreign Office reporting on the building of the Berlin Wall, 1961
FO 371/169185: British Military Government summary of John F. Kennedy's visit to Berlin, 1963.
FO 371/159605: Summary of the public reaction to Yuri Gagarin's space flight, 1961.
FCO 28/4223: Report on the public reaction to the Moscow Olympic Games, 1980.
FCO 28/3996: Margaret Thatcher's message to Brezhnev against the invasion of Afghanistan, 1979.
FCO 33/4353: Dispatch comparing life in the GDR with George Orwell's 1984.
FCO 33/1329: Account of discussion with Polish informant about the Polish riots, December 1970. (See opposite)
FCO 28/2361: Transcripts of all speeches and statements made by Leonid Brezhnev and Richard Nixon during Brezhnev's official 1973 visit to the United States.
Editorial Board
Mark Allinson, University of Bristol
Csaba Békés, Research Chair, Centre for Social Sciences, Institute for Political Science, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest
Peter Bugge, Aarhus University
Melissa Feinberg, Rutgers University
Hope M. Harrison, George Washington University
Matthew Jones, London School of Economics and Political Science
Pawet Machcewicz, Institute of Political Studies of Polish Academy of Science, Warsaw
Kristin Roth-Ey, University College London
Balåzs Szalontai, Korea University, Sejong Campus
Stephen Twigge, The National Archives, UK
Access Options
The file is currently available as a one-time purchase of perpetual rights or through annual subscription on the History Commons platform with new features including:
Ability to cross-search across all the history collections, with additional discovery tools
Updated, faster user interfaces, with mobile versions
Enhanced indexing
Search tables hidden within documents and export the data
Enhanced search tools, including Boolean and proximity operators
Zooming, printing and downloading
Free hosting of your related content